The Benefits of Bureaucracy
by MobBob
Summary: A new rule on campus means that Beca and Jesse will get paid less. Along with the help of Chloe, they try to start a petition to reverse the rule.


**A/N: This story is only rated M because of a certain four letter word. I would have rated it T, but I don't want a bunch of people jumping down my throat for age-inappropriate language.**

When Beca got to the radio station, she saw Jesse arguing with Luke. "They can't do this!"

"You're preaching to the choir," said Luke.

"I just can't believe they'd do something this fucking retarded," said Jesse.

Luke shrugged. "That's bureaucracy for you."

"What's wrong?" said Beca.

"Did you get my e-mail about your new schedule?" said Luke.

"No," said Beca. "I haven't checked my e-mail yet."

"Well I've printed it out." Luke went over to his laptop and picked up a piece of paper. "Take a look at it."

Beca looked at the schedule. "Wait, it's got me down for six hours a week, but I worked eight hours last semester. I even cleared my schedule so I could."

"I know," said Luke.

"Well can you fix it?" said Beca.

"Not really," said Luke.

"Why not?" said Beca.

"It's the university's newest police," said Luke. "Apparently someone did a study that showed that male college student have more free time than female students, meaning they can work longer. So the people upstairs decided that all students would work six hours, no matter what, to fix this imbalance."

"But I can work eight hours," said Beca.

"I know." Luke walked off.

Beca turned to Jesse. "Can you believe this?"

"Not really," said Jesse. "Actually I can, it saves the university some money, but I don't see how they can pretend like it's empowering."

"Well we've got to do something," said Beca. "Can't we start a petition?"

"I mean we could," said Jesse. "We could probably get a lot of signatures from the student workers. You know, the tutors, the guys at the lunchroom, people like that."

"Okay," said Beca. "Let's do that."

"Seriously?" said Jesse.

"Why not?" said Beca. "You want to stop this right?"

Jesse bit his lip. "Yeah but...okay I guess we could do it."

"Great," said Beca. "Let's do this."

* * *

Beca stood outside the library, looking for people to sign the petition. She approached a brunette who was busy texting, and held out her clipboard. "Hey would you like to sign our petition to-"

"Sure." The brunette took the clipboard and signed her name to it.

"Uh thanks, I guess." Beca took her clipboard back and found Jesse. "Hey, I just got nine more signatures."

"Great," said Jesse. "I got eleven more. That means we need...thirty-four more. Make that thirty-three."

Jesse went up to a friend of his, who gladly signed the petition. Beca looked around and spotted Chloe. "Hey Beca! Watcha doing?"

"Getting signatures for a petition," said Beca. "Do you want to sign? It's for-"

"Sure, I'd sign anything for you," said Chloe. "Don't have to ask me twice."

"Great," said Beca.

Someone behind them cleared their throat. "Excuse me? What do you think you're doing?"

They turned around to see Megan (**Last seen in Social Justice Through A capella**) standing there. Beca rolled her eyes. "Oh god Megan. What do you want?"

"Also," said Chloe. "Why aren't you in jail?"

"All I did was try to make A capella more inclusive," said Megan.

"By accusing people of rape," said Beca.

Megan ignored her. "So I heard you were circulating a petition to end the university's equal pay program."

"Is that what I signed?" said Chloe.

"No it's not," said Beca.

"Yes it is," said Megan. "It makes sure that female employees get paid the same as male employees."

"Um, I'm a woman and under your new program I get paid less," said Beca.

"Well that's just you," said Megan.

"Use whatever mental gymnastics you want Megan," said Beca. "It doesn't matter. I'm just thirty-two signatures away from having your policy reversed."

"Don't be too sure of that," said Megan. "You see, I'm here to tell you that you can't gather signatures on campus."

"And why not?" said Beca.

"Because this is a safe space," said Megan.

"I thought that was over there." Beca pointed to the Woman's Center.

"The whole campus is a safe space," said Megan. "And we don't need you going around and triggering people with your anti-feminist agenda."

Jesse walked up behind Megan. "How are we anti-feminist? If anything we're empowering-"

Megan jumped, grabbed her rape whistle, and blew it. "Rape! Rape! This man is raping me!"

Soon Jesse was swarmed by campus security and ran as fast as he could. He dropped his clipboard. Beca quickly snatched it up the ground before Megan could get her fingers on it. Megan walked off, wearing a smug smile on her face. Beca shook her head. "I can't believe she did this."

"Well this is Megan we're talking about," said Chloe.

"True," said Beca. "But what am I supposed to do now? I just needed thirty-two more signatures. Now we're sunk."

"I could always forge some signatures for you," said Chloe.

Beca laughed. "I don't think we can do that. You're joking right?"

"Um...yeah," said Chloe.

"Good," said Beca. "I don't know. I guess it really wasn't important. I mean I'm just losing twenty dollars a week."

"Which is one thousand and forty dollars a year," said Chloe.

"True," said Beca.

"Hey," said Chloe. "I think I've got an idea."

"What is it?" said Beca.

"Come meet me at the auditorium after practice tomorrow," said Chloe. "Let's see if we can get the Bellas to sign the petition."

"But isn't that still on campus?" said Beca.

"Yeah," said Chloe. "But what Megan doesn't know won't hurt her."

* * *

The next day, Chloe asked for all the Bellas to stay after practice. Beca explained her situation to them and asked them to sign her petition. When Beca was done explaining, she held out her clipboard for the Bellas to sign. However, none of the Bellas stepped forward. Beca tapped her foot. "Don't all sign at once."

Stacie broke the silence. "Look, we'd love to sign, but it's just that..."

"It's just that what?" said Beca.

"Well, you haven't been the nicest to us," said Amy.

"What are you talking about?" said Beca.

"Well, there was that one time where you broke routine on stage," said Amy.

"And I apologized for that," said Beca.

"And you talk about us behind out backs," said Cynthia-Rose.

"You know about that?" said Beca.

"And you called me a slut once," said Stacie.

"Excuse me," said Beca. "But I was not the only one. Lily, I'm looking at you."

Everyone turned the heads to Lily, who muttered something under her breath. "Uh...let's just focus at Beca."

"Okay," said Chloe. "You guys have some issues with Beca. That's fine. Let's not sign this petition for Beca."

"Then who are we signing this for?" said Stacie.

"Let's sign this for cunts." The Bellas all raised their eyebrows. "Let me explain. Let's sign this to say fuck you to the cunts of the world. You know, the cunts who'll punch you in the stomach and say they're looking out for you. The cunts who think they can speak for you. The cunts who'll focus more on me saying cunt than what I'm actually saying. Sign this and we can stand up to those cunts."

The Bellas took awhile to think about what Chloe had said for a moment, but they all unanimously came forward and signed the petition. Beca grinned as she looked over the signatures. "This is more than enough signatures. Thanks you guys so much."

"Don't mention it," said Stacie. "Just remember, you owe us."

"Yeah," said Amy. "Maybe you could buy us dinner with your extra paycheck."

"I could do that," said Beca. "So long as you don't mind me ordering off the dollar menu."


End file.
